The Mamluks – Medieval Islamic history

Mamluks were enslaved soldiers

The Mamluks were originally enslaved bodyguards of the Abbasid caliphs of the Islamic Empire (the word “mamluk” just means “slave” in Arabic). Starting around 850 AD, the Abbasid caliphs captured or bought young boys who were not Muslims as slaves.

The caliphs brought the boys up to be Sunni Muslim soldiers in a slave army. These men made a great army. There soon got to be more and more Mamluks.

Nureddin and the Second Crusade

In 1144, the Mamluk general Imad-ud-Din Zangi conquered Edessa, one of the Crusader states founded after the First Crusade. Zangi’s own slaves killed him shortly after that, when he caught them drinking his wine.

When the Second Crusade arrived to win Edessa back, Zangi’s son Nureddin fought them off successfully. After the Second Crusade ended without taking any of his territory, Nureddin created a kingdom for himself in Syria. He conquered Damascus from local Muslim rulers.

Coin of Shajar al-Durr, with Arabic writing

Mamluk generals conquer Jerusalem

During the 1100s AD, other Mamluk generals worked for the Ayyubid sultans in Egypt and Syria, but little by little the sultans had less power and the Mamluk generals got more and more power.

Mamluks take over Egypt and Syria from the Ayyubids

In 1250 AD Shajar al-Durr, the mother of the last Ayyubid sultan, killed her son and ruled on her own. She negotiated to end the 7th Crusade and let Louis go. Shajar al-Durr soon had to marry the Mamluk leader, Aybak, in order to keep power, but she continued to rule.

Mamluks defeat the Mongols

It was the first time anyone had defeated the Mongols in a big battle. People were very excited! The victory of Ain Jalut prevented the Mongols from adding the Romanized half of the Islamic Empire to their Mongol Empire. The man who led the Mamluks, Baybars, became sultan after the battle.

Mosque of Baybars in Cairo

Baybars defeats the Crusaders

Baybars and the Bahri Mamluks defeated the last of the Crusaders in 1263. The Mamluks really hated the Crusaders, because the Crusaders had made an alliance with the Mongol Khan Mongke against Islam.

There was a big battle at Antioch, and in the end the Mamluk soldiers won. They killed 16,000 Christian soldiers and sold all of the hundred thousand people living in Antioch as slaves. (Compare this to Alexander at Tyre, or the Athenian massacre at Melos)

Mamluk trade with Europe – and the Black Death

From 1293 to 1340, the sultan al-Nasir enjoyed an unusually long reign of 47 years! The Mamluks were very powerful, and his court was very rich with gold and all kinds of luxuries. Mamluk traders sold sugar and paper to Europe, and Mamluk Christians brought the idea of painted Easter eggs to Europe.

The Ottomans defeat the Mamluks

After 1382 AD – after the Black Death – another group of Mamluks took charge. These sultans were the Burjis, and they were mainly Circassians from southern Russia. There was less peace and more fighting among the Burjis. Instead of exporting paper, Egypt began to buy things like paper, sewing thimbles, and sugar from Europe.

But the Burjos were still very good soldiers against other people too. In 1426 AD, for instance, Mamluk soldiers conquered the island of Cyprus, where Europeans had been growing sugar with the work of African slaves. In 1440, the Mamluk army attacked Rhodes, but they could not take it. By 1517, however, the Ottomans defeated the Mamluks and took over their empire.

11 Comments

Thank you ,you described and explained very well Mamluk ,but there is on question for me that were they in fact more interested in using Islam to gain political and economic power ? were they really as pious and virtuous as they made themselves out to be?

Karen Carr
February 2, 2018 at 10:24 pm

I think they can be both: they were serious about Islam, and saw a lot of good in Islamic rules for living. And at the same time the Mamluk rulers were very ambitious and smart, and figured out how to get more power and more wealth. There’s no rule that sincerely religious people have to be poor.

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